April 27, 2007	Friday	Rabi-us-Sani 09, 1428

BRUSSELS, April 26: An EU-US summit next week in Washington will set up a transatlantic council to direct cooperation on issues, such as cosmetics testing and accounting rules, a draft declaration obtained by AFP said.

The council will be founded when EU and US leaders meet on Monday in Washington for a summit that will focus on climate change in addition to improving economic cooperation.

The body will have the task of drawing up schedules and monitoring operations aimed at meeting economic partnership objectives agreed on by the two sides during EU-US summits.

One of the priorities this year and next will be to determine regulations for cosmetics testing, with the aim of finding alternatives to testing using animals.

Another priority would be to find answers to common concerns about road safety and saving petrol.

The project also aims to make US accounting standards, known as GAAP, and EU norms mutually recognised by 2009 without trying to harmonise them.

The council is to be co-chaired on the European side by EU Industry Commissioner Guenter Verheugen and experts in transatlantic relations will be invited to its meetings to provide recommendations.—AFP